Crucial to RCEP’s investment protection chapter is the highly controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism, a system of privatised justice characterised by international arbitration tribunals outside of the reach of domestic legal systems, explains Cecilia Olivet of TNI

Officials from ASEAN member states and other countries meeting in India this week for negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) should take steps to ensure that the trade deal safeguards human rights, Southeast Asian lawmakers said today.

That concern is a real and serious one, but there is also a more direct and crude problem: parties (or their lawyers) bribing, or making backdoor deals with, the arbitrators to secure a favorable outcome.

Crystallex — owed $1.4 billion for the expropriation of its Venezuela mining subsidiary — has moved U.S. Federal Court in Delaware to seize Petroleos de Venezuela Holding, the parent company of PDVSA’s American unit Citgo Holding.

About the ISDS platform

The ISDS platform is a resource tool about the controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism in trade and investment agreements. It aims to provide the latest news, campaign tools and critical analysis to groups engaged in defeating ISDS.